Shallow drawer container for sheets



Dec. 6, 1932- H. DE LISLE I 21 SHALLOW DRAWER CONTRINER FOR SHEETSOriginal Filed Aug. 1. 1928 Imam 35313 3111) 1L. 'JE LllElLE, 01EG'HICAGQ, ILLINQIIFA S'SIEALLQW' BEAT/VER- NTAINER F933, SJHEETSoriginal application filed August 1, 1928, Serial l lo. 296,595

Divided and this application filed Angus:

29, 1929. Serial No. 389,291..

lh'ese improvements relate to containers in the form of drawersassociated with each ther in a cabinet and designed to hold such eetmaterial as tracings, blueprints, etc. round in drafting roonis.

T his application is a division of my copendmg application filed August1, 1928 as Ser. No, 296595 on container for relatively large sheets.

One object or" the invention is to reduce the wastage or" space infiling cabinets for such material. It is found inconvenient tOllfillCllGone bunch or mass more than approximate ly one hundred sheets or" thekind referred to. The practice prior to my inventions has been to filethat number of sheets in drawers not less than two inches deep and thusconsiderehly more than hall of the drawer space is wasted. According tothese iin rovelnents the depth oi the drawers may e reduced greatly, andin my practice their depth is one inch.- A sheet-metal drawer havingonly one-inch deep sides and ends and having large horizontal dimensionsinvolves considerations of construction not present in say a two inchdrawer, and one feature of the present invention is directed to drawerconstruction,

l hen these drawers contain the practical- 1y permissible amount ofsheetmaterial they are quite heavy, and another feature of the invention isdirected to ease and convenience in operation.

in the accompanying drawing Figure 1 shows fragmentarily in sideelevation a pin rality of drawers in a cabinet also fragmenshown; Fig. 2is a fragmentary top plan of any one of the drawers of 1" 7 F 1g. 3 isfurther enlarged and longitudinal sectional view as on the line 33 ofend wall 10 and side walls 11 while the front remains open for theinsertion of the drawers. The adjacent ones or. these drawers markedrespectively 14: to 22 inclusive are in close association with eachother and are arranged one above the other in series. They are carriedfor forward and rearward sliding movements by guidingand-supportingmeans in the form of angle irons 125, seen in cross view in Fig. 5.

Each drawer illustrated has bearing menihers, preferably antifrictionelements, shown as rollers 26 and 27., each thereof extending alcove theplane of the surfaces defining the top of these open top drawersrespectively The drawer is shown as being drawn outwardly to someextent. Note that the roller 26 of the drawer 20 is in contact with thesuhstantielly fiat bottom-wall Q8 of the drawer above it marked 19, andthat the roller 27 of A drawer very easy.

The guiding-and-supporting elements 25 are so arranged that they arejust about or harely in contact with the side marginal portions of thedrawers respectively when the drawers are in closed position, as theyare for the most part in Fig. 1, whereby both the rollers 26 and 27 ofany given drawer are in ctual contact with the bottom walls respectivelywhen the drawers are in closed position, The aim in this respect is tohave the weight of the respective drawers on the rollers, but

with the angle iron cleats as 25 so substantially close to the undersurfaces of the respective drawers that when any drawer is removedwholly or partially from the cabinet the drawer above will immediatelyrest on the supports as 25.

In the preferred arrangement the rollers are at the extreme end portionsof the drawers -wnere there is strong reinforcing. That arrangement hasother advantages but it is clear that rollers could be positioned alongthe sides.

The close arrangement of the cleats as 25 with the margin of the drawersis desirable further to prevent sagging of the drawers through a periodof time. If the top surface of the rollers 26 and 27 be but slightlyhigher than the sliding surface of the cleats 25 next above themrespectively the desired result will he obtained. When the drawer iswithdrawn 2. consider his distance the over-balancing of the front endwith respect to the rear end brings the roller 26 more strongly incontact with the bottom of the drawer above.

Each drawer has a pair of handles or pulls 29 secured as by screws 29aat the front end.

Fig. 2 shows that there are three such rollers 26 and three of therollers '27 at spacedapart intervals across the rear and front marginalportions respectively of each of the drawers. it has been mentioned thatthese drawers are of very considerable size in the iore-and-att andlateral directions, and such a plurality of rollers as shown by Fig. 2ishighly advantageous in the larger size drawers. More narrow drawerswould suitably have two pairs of such rollers, while it is conceivablethat a peculiarly narrow yet long drawer might be suggested for aparticular purpose and in which a single roller at the front andrearwould sufhce.

in the drawer construction illustrated the bottom Wall 28 is turned upto form side Walls as 30, the end wall 31 and the front wall 32.

Referring to the right hand end of Fig. 3 a channel forniedfromsheet-metal having a normally vertical part 34, a top part 35, and abottom part 36 fits upon the bottom Wall 23 at 28a and upon the end wall32. The bottom wall 23 is pressed inward slightly at 28a:- toaccommodate the flange-like part 36. This reinforcing member 34-3536 isstrongly secured to the adjacent parts as by spot-welding, and thisspot-welding is done before the reinforcing member next to be mentionedis applied. This further reinforcing member has a bottom flange-likepart 38,a vertical part 39 and a forwardly extending part 40 reaching tothe vertical end wall 32, and the upper walls and overlap each other totheir full extents respectively. This auxiliary support 3839-4O isspot-welded to the bottom 23. It may also he spot-welded to the part 35,but I find that to be unnecessary where I have a plurality of screws,shown at 41 Fig. 2, holding the roller frames. these screws beingthreaded into the upper flange 40.

The construction at the right hand endv of F 3 as thus describedprovides a hollow rim substantially rectangular in cross view andextending from side to side of the drawer at its front end. Assuming thedrawer of Fig. 3 to be one inch in height, the fore- ,and aftproportions of the rim are indicated,

Note that the bottom wall 28 is strongly reinforced at its front endportion by the flange-like parts 38 and 36 spot-welded to the bottom 28.

Turning to the left hand end of Fig. 3 I

the end wall 31 is turned rearward to form the flange-like upper wall310:. (See Figs. 2 and 4.) There is rigidly secured to the wall 31 achannel iron of sheet-metal having a vertical part or base 43, a lowerflangelike part 44 and an upper flange-like part 45, the flange 44 beingon the plane of the bottom 28. These upper and lower flanges areparallel with each other and extend, as does the base 43, from side toside on the end Wall 31, the base 43 thus being coextensive with thewall 31.

The upper flange 45 interflts with the top wall 310: and is preferablyspot-welded thereto at intervals. lVith the double thickness of metal atthe top, namely the flange-like parts 31a and 45, taken with the rest ofthe construction shown the strength of this reinforcing member issuflicient.

Turning to Fig. 5 showing the construction at the sides of the drawer,secured to the side wall 30 is a reinforcing member substantiallyrectangular in cross view and having a normally vertical wall 48coextensive with the wall 30, a top wall 49 and a bottom wall 50, theupper and lower walls 49 and 50 having extensions 511 and 521respectively which are on normally vertical lines and are directedtoward each other, but they do not come together, leaving a gap at 54through which the electrode is inserted for spot-welding the walls 48and 30 together. The flanges 511 and 521 strongly reinforce theconstruction and the reinforcement thus provided for the sides aflordsthe desired strength and rigidity.

The roller construction is the same at both ends and will be given thesame reference characters except for the rollers themselves. There isarectangular open frame 60, Fig. 4, having side extensions 51 throughwhich the screws 41 project to be threaded into the flange 45 at theleft hand end of Fig. 3 and the flange 40 at the right hand end thereof.The frame fits between the walls 32 and 39 the right hand end of Fig. 3and fits against the base 43 at the left hand end of that figure. Theseframes 60 therefore reinforce to some extent the rest of theconstruction. The rollers 25 and 27 are mounted on shafts 63, Fig. 4,extending rotatably through the uprights of the frame 60.

Such a shallow drawer not only effects savings in construction but,importantly, in'the filing space necessary for a given number ofblue-prints, tracings, and the like, this latter being a feature ofunusual importance when the hundreds of thousands of such. sheets to befound at a given engineering oflice are considered. According to myvarious imbeing turned upward, said extensions being directed towardeach other and having their ends spaced from each other.

91A shallow sheetanetal drawer c01nprisingla normally horizontal andflat bottom wall, side and end walls upturned from the bottom wall, anda reinforcing frame memher at each of the side and end walls, each ofsaid frame members having a top wall, a bottom wall and a side wall, theside wall of each of the frame members being rigidly secured to'theadjacent wall upturned from the bottom wall.

10. I'ncombination, two fiat-bottom opentop drawers arranged one abovethe other, the lower drawer having a roller arranged to rollupon thebottom of the upper drawer when the lower drawer is moved outwardly-relative'tothe middle drawer and the lower drawer having a rollerarranged'to be in contact with the bottom of the upper drawer when theupper drawer is moved outwardly relative to the lower drawer.

11. WValls forming an open-front cabinet, a plurality of drawers oneabove the other in aseries in the cabinet,-'eacl1 of said drawers havingbearing elements in contact with a next adjacent drawer of the series,the arrangement providing that one drawer con1- inunicates its weightthrough bearing elements to the drawer next below it, and means forsupporting the drawers respectively whereby any given drawer issustained when the drawer below it is withdrawn.

HAROLD L. DE LISLE,

